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In order to promote interaction between Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) and the City of Kansas City, MO (KCMO), the Uriah Group was hired to design and conduct a joint day-long Reality Based Exercise (RBXsm) for invited participants from KCMO and KCP&L, in accordance with federal Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) requirements. The RBXsm presented a hypothetical scenario that affected the city infrastructure and simulated the various stages of crisis management and contingency planning impacting the company, the City, its environs and citizens, and business establishments during such an incident.
The RBXsm was a scenario-driven, multi-media based exercise utilizing a simulated real world situation presented in “real-time” in an informal, but structured forum. The particular emphasis of this RBXsm was to exercise the interaction of public and private functional organizations leveraging each other’s capabilities in the management and response to a terrorism event.
The Uriah Group version of the tabletop exercise (TTX), the RBXsm is a free-form, scenario-driven, video-based exercise that encourages the participants to “free play” through a situation, providing the reality of a crisis with the analysis of a TTX. The emphasis of the RBXsm is communications, awareness, and leadership across the exercised environment by all the participants. Their exercises leverage the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the National Response Plan (NRP), and the precepts of the Joint Information System (JIS) and Joint Information Center (JIC).
The additional value of the RBXsm with video supplements is the potential reuse factor that allows a client to take the delivered package and conduct the training in a different venue with new players.
An After Action Report (AAR) was produced to document overall exercise effectiveness. As such, this report serves as a compendium of lessons learned and provides the basis for planning future exercises, as well as:
- Suggesting changes to policies, plans, and procedures
- Improving coordination and communications with local, state, and federal government agencies and industry
- Identifying gaps in resources
The goal was to promote interaction between KCP&L and KCMO by presenting a scenario that affected the city infrastructure. The exercise simulated a real world incident, stimulated active discussion among all participants, stressed existing plans, policies, and procedures, and assessed and documented the demonstrated capabilities and deficiencies of exercising organizations. Coordination, cooperation, communication, and decision-making methodology during the exercise were more important than response details. Emphasis during the exercise was on the team approach to incident response; examination of infrastructure interdependencies; integration of capabilities and resource sharing; and problem identification, reporting, analysis, and resolution through the various phases of incident response. The ultimate goals were:
- Minimizing suffering, loss of life, and personal injury
- Minimizing damage to property
- Minimizing disaster-related service disruption which would have an adverse impact on the government, communities, and businesses
- Maintaining the tax revenue for local communities
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The Uriah Group: 703 608 8521
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